Muhammad Abd Al-Rahman (Phillip) Barker: Bridging Cultural Divides Through Fantasy/ Science-Fiction Role-Playing Games and Fictional Religion

Muhammad Abd al-Rahman (Phillip) Barker:
Bridging Cultural Divides through Fantasy/

Science-Fiction Role-Playing Games and Fictional
Religion
Amina Inloes
The Islamic College, London, UK
Abstract
“Muslims” and “Dungeons & Dragons” are rarely discussed in the same sentence.
However, one of the earliest fantasy role-playing games, which left a lasting impact on
the industry, was the brainchild of Muhammad Abd al-Rahman (Phillip) Barker (1929-
2012), a professor of South Asian Studies, an expert in Native American languages, and
an American convert to Islam. Like Tolkien, Barker created an enormous fantasy world;
however, unlike Tolkien, his world was redolent with Native American and South
Asian cultural and religious influences. Through this world, he shared with his fans a
nuanced understanding of non-Western societies, cultures, and beliefs – the facets of
the human experience that truly constitute multiculturalism. While fictional religion in
role-playing games has been feared and condemned, fictional religion (and occultism)
plays a pivotal role in Barker’s work; an exploration of his approach towards fictional
religion also sheds more light on the question of why fantasy role-playing games came
across as competitors towards religion. Barker’s fantasy world brought people of
diverse backgrounds together in a beautiful demonstration of how fantasy and science
fiction can bring about intercultural and interreligious tolerance in an otherwise
intolerant world. Given the centrality of games such as Dungeons & Dragons to
American popular culture, an exploration of Barker’s legacy can also be seen in the
light of the study of the history and contributions of Muslims in America.
Key words: science-fiction, fantasy role-playing games, religion, Dungeons & Dragons,
Tekumel, Empire of the Petal Throne, M. A. R. Barker, J. R. R. Tolkien, American Mus-
lims, conversion to Islam, occultism, Klamath tribes, South Asian studies
***
I rode with him for the last time on the way to the mosque. [. . .] I was asked
by the brothers who were to prepare him for the prayers of the faithful why I
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DOI: 10.1111/muwo.12225
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THE MUSLIM WORLD VOLUME 108 JULY 2018
was there. [. . .] I stayed with him for the last time as they washed and anointed
him. I told them of his gifts as a linguist and as a scholar, of his writing, and of
his life. I told them of his conversion to Islam, and his abiding faith. I told him
of how he’d taught so many of us so many things, and I told them of his
astonishing creation of an entire world. I stayed with him while he was given
the robes he would wear for his final trip in this world, and I stayed with him
while the faithful offered their prayers for him.
Jeff Berry, a friend of M. A. R. Barker, at his burial service1
Introduction
ailed as “the forgotten Tolkien”,2 Muhammad Abd al-Rahman (Phillip) Barker
H (1929–2012) is one of the most influential but understudied figures in the history
of fantasy role-playing games. He published his first game – the Empire of the
Petal Throne – almost immediately after Dungeons & Dragons and set the industry standard
for detailed world-building; he also published five fantasy/science-fiction novels set in that
world. A professor specializing in Native American and South Asian languages, and an Amer-
ican convert to Islam, Barker introduced authentically non-Western concepts of religion and
society into his game-world; this is in contrast to his predecessors, such as Lovecraft, who
drew upon an exoticized, Orientalist view of the “East” as a land of magic and mystery.
This article will explore how Barker’s beliefs, studies, and travels informed his fiction
and thus entered into the fantasy gaming and fantasy/science-fiction genres. It can be
seen in light of the debate over whether Muslims can write “authentic” science fiction,
and the “Muslim science fiction” movement.3 It is also hoped that this article will
1
Jeff Berry, “Announcement About a Memorial Event for Phil”, Chirine’s Workbench (March 31, 2012)
[blog] <http://chirinesworkbench.blogspot.co.uk/2012_03_01_archive.html. Accessed 24 December
2016.
2
See David M. Ewalt, “Gaming giant M. A. R. Barker Dead at 83”, in Forbes (March 17, 2012)
<http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidewalt/2012/03/17/mar-barker-dies-tekumel/#53ebee882110.
Accessed 24 December 2016; Konrad Lischka, “Der vergessene Tolkien”, in Spiegel Online (October 6,
2009) <http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/spielzeug/tekumel-schoepfer-m-a-r-barker-der-vergessene-
tolkien-a-649336.html. Accessed 24 December 2016. For earlier comparisons between Barker and
Tolkien, refer to the subsequent section of this article entitled “Barker and Tolkien”.
3
See Nesrine Malik, “What happened to Arab science fiction?”, in The Guradian (July 30, 2009)
<https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2009/jul/30/arab-world-science-fiction. Accessed
December 24, 2016; Bret McCabe, “Muslim fiction writers are turning to sci-fi, fantasy, and comics”, in
Johns Hopkins Magazine (Summer 2015) <http://hub.jhu.edu/magazine/2015/summer/muslim-sci-fi-
and-comics/>. Accessed December 24, 2016; Farah Rishi, “Why Sci-Fi Gives Me Hope for the Future as
a Muslim”, in Vice (November 15, 2016) <https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/for-muslim-writers-
coping-post-election-science-fiction-is-the-new-frontier. Accessed December 24, 2016; Muhammad
Aurangzeb Ahmad and Ahmed A. Khan (eds.), A Mosque Among the Stars ([Canada]: ZC Books, 2008).
See also Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad’s website Islam and Science Fiction: On Science Fiction, Islam
and Muslims <www.islamicscifi.com which highlights the contributions of Muslim science-fiction
writers as well as science-fiction about Muslims.
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M UHAMMAD A BD A L -R AHMAN (P HILLIP ) B ARKER
contribute to a more nuanced picture of the history of Islam in America, and demonstrate
how fantasy and science fiction can nurture intercultural and interreligious understand-
ing. Last but not least, an examination of Barker’s own approach to his work shows why
fantasy, science-fiction, and role-playing games can themselves seem similar to religion;
and underscores the influence of occultism in fantasy, science-fiction, and gaming.
Crossing cultures: M. A. R. Barker inscribes his copy of Dungeons & Dragons

with the Arabic/Urdu numerals 786, an abbreviation for “in the name of Allah,
the Compassionate, the Merciful,” which Muslims often write at the beginning
of documents.4
An unlikely journey
M. A. R. Barker was born as Phillip Barker on November 2, 1929 in Spokane, Wash-
ington, and grew up rural Idaho.5 A bookish child, Barker suffered from intellectual
under-stimulation and compensated by turning inwards to fantasy, science-fiction, and a
study of ancient Egyptian and Mayan languages and civilizations.6 From about the age of
ten, Barker imagined a vast fantasy world called Tekumel – similar to Tolkien’s Middle
Earth. “I have always had some sort of Tekumel,” he recalls. “I don’t really know where
the first idea from.”7 Tekumel blossomed under those influences; it would later become
the setting of his novels and games.
Barker pursued his study of languages and cultures at the University of Washington,
where he studied anthropology and South Asian languages. A promising academic, he
was awarded a Fulbright scholarship in 1951, at which time he travelled to India and
spent the first year studying at the University of Lucknow, and the second year research-
ing languages and customs in remote areas. Photos and anecdotes reflect the simplicity
4
Personal photo by collector.
5
M. A. R. Barker, e-mail [Tekumel e-mail group] <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/tekumel/
conversations/topics/18608. Accessed December 28, 2016; Gary Alan Fine: Shared Fantasy: Role-
Playing Games as Social Worlds (Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1983), 21. Gary Alan
Fine’s information about Barker is taken from interviews with him, which are quoted extensively in
Shared Fantasy.
6
Gary Alan Fine, Shared Fantasy, p124–130.
7
“Interview: M. A. R. Barker”, in Space Gamer (1984), 20–25: 24. I would like to thank John Whitburn
for providing me with a photocopy of the special section on Tekumel in this issue of Space Gamer.
V 3893
of his surroundings: he was truly in a different world from the one he was born in, and a
different world from the one we have today.8 Through his studies and travels, Barker
grasped the notion that different peoples not only lived differently, but thought differ-
ently – for instance, that the American celebration of science and technology was not
automatically shared. Decades later, he recounted:
I lived in India for many years, and I often encountered very intelligent, sophisti-
cated people who had absolutely no curiosity about how things worked or technol-
ogy. In fact, there are many people here, myself included, who are not
“scientifically curious” about how an electric motor works, how far away the stars
are, or what materials make up their clothing, their toothpaste, or their shoes. We
take some things as beyond the need for curiosity; other peoples take more, other,
and different things as such. The tribal people I lived with in India saw the airplane
from Calcutta to Delhi fly overhead every day; they shrugged, wondered briefly if it
was a steel bird, and then went back to being totally uncurious about it.9
Barker’s travels also involved “misadventures” which must have influenced his
adventure-oriented writing. His anecdote here reflects his character, the challenges he
faced, the way he framed his travels as an adventure – and also, simply, a bygone era:
I once spent three months in Hong Kong long ago – compulsorily: I had lost
my passport in Singapore, and the American embassy people did not believe I
was an American until they checked my fingerprints with Washington. I thus
ended up in Hong Kong waiting for my new passport to arrive. I was nearly
penniless and lived quite comfortably in a brothel in Kowloon – without the
services of the girls, I must add. They were all very nice to me, and my few
remaining dollars were enough to pay for rice and an occasional bowl of vege-
tables. I thus saw Hong Kong from the underside, as it were. When my pass-
port finally arrived, I managed to catch a Norwegian freighter going home to
San Francisco. All of this was rather jolly, and the British police in Hong Kong
were understanding. Everybody seemed to think I was either an agent for the
8
Chirine ba Kal, “Remembering M.A.R. Barker 1929–2012” [memorial video with photos], in Youtube
(January 29, 2014) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v59s63mGgW968. Accessed December 16,
2014.
9
M. A. R. Barker, in Tekumel Discussion Group [Yahoo Group] (June 1, 2004). <https://groups.yahoo.
com/neo/groups/tekumel/conversations/messages/16186. Accessed December 24, 2016. He relates a
similar sentiment in The Blue Room, a Tekumel e-mail list which ran from 1995–2000 and is archived at
<http://www.tekumel.com/blueroom_list.html: “I know it is hard for Americans/Europeans to under-
stand, but not every people, race, culture, or what-have-you shares the ‘scientific’ attitude that is
needed for experimentation and study. Try explaining some of the ‘simple’ products of our own culture
to those who have never grown up in that tradition. It’s not as easy as it seems. I recall once trying to
explain to a group of tribesmen in central India what a two-dimensional picture in a magazine was sup-
posed to show. Having never seen magazines or pictures before, my friends had a hard time ‘seeing’
depth in the picture. Then try explaining how you get a metal airplane stuffed full of human beings to
rise off the ground and fly from Calcutta up to Delhi!” M. A. R. Barker, The Blue Room, vol. 2, message
71. (Messages archived on The Blue Room do not have titles.)
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Russians or an escaped Nazi war criminal, although I speak neither Russian

nor German. Just my “good looks”, I guess.10
Barker’s time in India left another lasting impact on him: while in India, he converted
to Islam for “purely theological reasons”, and because he felt Islamic belief was “logical” –
a common conversion narrative among American Muslims;11 he was also moved by an
“unimaginable feeling of awe and religious ecstasy” upon hearing the recitation of the
names of Allah at the Taj Mahal.12 This was ostensibly a departure from his family of origin,
in that his father was “an outspoken atheist”, and his mother an agnostic.13 (“Ostensibly”
in that an “outspoken atheist” also has a vested interest in questions of religion.) Upon
conversion, he changed his name from “Phillip” to “Muhammad Abd-al-Rahman”, which
he abbreviated as “M. A. R.” – according to a friend, out of respect for the name of the
Prophet, since a pious Muslim ought to offer blessings upon the Prophet after uttering his
name.14 However, he may also have wished to avoid advertising his faith among people
who would find it strange. He may also simply have enjoyed the secrecy; Barker thrived
on secrets. A committed Muslim throughout his life, Barker soon married a Muslim of Paki-
stani descent – Ambereen. Along with his father-in-law, Habibullah Khan, he participated
in the founding of the Islamic Centre of Montreal,15 and, in the 1950’s, he aired radio
shows on Qur’anic exegesis. In 1962, he and his wife performed the hajj; and in 1965, they
met the Shah of Iran.16
After converting to Islam, Barker returned to the United States, where he pursued a
PhD in Native American languages and cultures at the University of California, Berkeley.
For his field research, he lived near the Klamath tribes (which span north-eastern Califor-
nia and Oregon), culminating in his publication of Klamath Texts (1963), Klamath Dic-
tionary (1963), and Klamath Grammar (1964), as well as a detailed audio library. Barker
was almost too late; today, Klamath is an endangered language, and Klamath tribes
10
M. A. R. Barker, unpublished letter to a British author of gamebooks, novels, and comics and a
designer of computer games and role-playing games (no date).
11
Gary Alan Fine, Shared Fantasy, 131; Joseph P. Laycock, Dangerous Games: What the Moral Panic
over Role-Playing Games Says about Play, Religion, and Imagined Worlds (Oakland: University of Cali-
fornia Press, 2015), 63. Regarding conversion narratives among American Muslims, see Amina Inloes
(
and Liyakat Takim, “Conversion to Twelver Shi ism among American and Canadian Women”, in Studies
in Religion, vol. 43, no. 1 (2014), 3–24.
12
Sajida Alvi, “In Memoriam: Professor Abd al-Rahman Barker” [transcript of memorial speech]; Chirine
ba Kal, “Remembering M. A. R. Barker 1929–2012”.
13
Gary Alan Fine, Shared Fantasy, 131.
14
Personal e-mail from a friend of Barker, March 16, 2016.
15
Mumtazul Haque Rehman, “The Story of Indo-Pakistani Muslim Community in Montreal, Quebec”,
in Montreal Religious Sites Project (McGill University, no date) <http://mrsp.mcgill.ca/reports/html/
MuslimHistory/>. Accessed December 24, 2016. About Barker, Rehman states, “Barker became very
active in the Muslim community and his command of Urdu language was amazing.”
16
Chirine ba Kal, “Remembering M. A. R. Barker 1929–2012”.
V 3915
endorse Barker’s texts as a means of preserving the language.17 Barker also transcribed
Klamath folktales which reflect a visionary-magical approach to the world and a sha-
manic heritage; the relevance of this to his fiction will be returned to later.18 In this way,
Barker followed a path similar to that of the mythologist Joseph Campbell, whose studies
of cross-cultural myth – especially Native American stories – led to an overarching theory
of myth and influenced the development of fantasy, science fiction, and gaming. He can
also be compared to Ursula Le Guin, who grounded many of her fantasy and science-
fiction novels in Native American stories as well as anthropological studies.
In 1957, Barker began teaching at the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University,
Quebec. Apart from some time in Pakistan, he remained there until 1972, when he began
teaching at the University of Minnesota, and chaired the department of South Asian Stud-
ies.19 He published several textbooks on Urdu and South Asian languages, which – like
his Klamath books – were well-received and, despite the passage of time, remain in use
today.20 Among them were: A Course in Urdu (1967), An Urdu Newspaper Reader
(1968), A Reader in Modern Urdu Poetry (1968), A Course in Baluchi (1969), A Reader of
Classical Urdu Poetry (1977, 3 volumes), and the painstaking An Urdu Newspaper Word
Count (1969). He also amassed an extensive library of South Asian and Mesoamerican
manuscripts – rumored to be the largest in North America – and an extensive collection
of antique armor, weaponry, and swords.21
Off campus, Barker pursued his creative interests. In his early adulthood, Barker contrib-
uted to local science fiction and fantasy magazines.22 However, it wasn’t until the release of
17
See the Klamath Tribes website at <http://klamathtribes.org/language/>. For praise of Barker’s
work, see Juliette Blevins, “Klamath Laryngeal Phonology”, in International Journal of American Lin-
guistics, vol. 59, no. 3 (July 1993), 237–279 <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1265523. Accessed December
24, 2016; Rio Akasaka, “Klamath Language Sketch” (2008) <http://www.rioleo.org/docs/klamath.pdf;
Theodore Stern, Review of Klamath Texts, in American Anthropologist, vol. 66, no. 2 (1964), 481–482
<http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1525/aa.1964.66.2.02a00630/pdf >. The audio library is avail-
able from the University of California, Berkeley, via <http://cla.berkeley.edu/collection/10074.
18
Some of Barker’s transcriptions are included in Chapter 5 of Jarold Ramsey (ed.), Coyote Was Going
There: Indian Literature of the Oregon Country (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1977). Sha-
manic aspects of Klamath culture are discussed in Robert J. David, Spirit Fire and Lightning Songs:
Looking at Myth and Shamanism on a Klamath Basin Petroglyph Site [Contributions to the University
of California Archaeological Research Facility, vol. 66 (2016)] < http://escholarship.org/uc/item/
3v65f77m. Accessed December 24, 2016.
19
Sajida Alvi, “In Memoriam”; Chirine ba Kal, “Remembering M. A. R. Barker 1929–2012”.
20
One of his colleagues describes his Urdu textbooks as “invaluable” with “remarkable clarity and
details of grammatical and syntactical rules”. Sajida Alvi, “In Memoriam: Professor Abd al-Rahman
Barker”. They are still used at McGill University and at the School of Oriental and African Studies
(SOAS), London, UK, and probably elsewhere.
21
Sajida Alvi, “In Memoriam: Professor Abd al-Rahman Barker”; personal e-mail from Wan Mohd Nor Daud
(March 21, 2016). In this email, Daud recalls Barker as a “kind man” and “passionate about Urdu Studies”.
22
Names given are Fanscient and Sinistra. Photos of some of his early pieces are available at <http://teku-
melcollecting.com/2015/03/17/previously-unknown-m-a-r-barker-drawing-found/> and <http://tekumel-
collecting.com/2017/04/08/growing-up-with-tekumel-early-writings-of-m-a-r-barker/>.
392
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Dungeons & Dragons – in 1974, when he was in his 40’s – that Barker codified his world,
Tekumel, into a game and put it on the mass market. The premise of Dungeons & Dragons
was simple: players create fictional characters, and then use those characters to simulate
adventures in a combination of spontaneous narrative and battle simulation. When Barker
first encountered Dungeons & Dragons, he liked it but felt that it lacked a developed culture
and social structure, and so he wrote to one of the co-authors of Dungeons & Dragons, Gary
Gygax, asking if he could publish his own game.23 Gygax agreed, and soon he himself pub-
lished the first edition of Barker’s fantasy role-playing game – the Empire of the Petal Throne
(sometimes simply referred to as Tekumel).
Barker released five formal editions of the Empire of the Petal Throne (in 1975, 1976,
1983, 1987, and 2000) as well as about 50 game supplements; Tekumel enthusiasts have
also produced variations on the rules, Tekumel encyclopaedias, fanzines, and similar
materials.24 Additionally, Barker published five novels set in his game world: The Man of
Gold (1984), Flamesong (1987), Lords of Tsamra (2003), Prince of Skulls (2002), and A
Death of Kings (2003), as well as a pseudonymous novel.25 Posthumously – in 2015 – a
Tekumel iPhone app was released, and, in 2016, the Tekumel Foundation began an offi-
cial podcast. T ekumel continues to be played at gaming conventions.
Over the years, Tekumel gaming communities sprung up across the United States, in
England, and in other parts of the world, and so one can discuss both the sociology of
Tekumel, and the sociology of players of Tekumel. To me, the most meaningful insights
about T ekumel came not from the published works but rather from players themselves –
especially from members of the two gaming groups that met weekly at Barker’s house.
Through their influence, these players can be considered contributors to Baker’s world;
and they spoke not only of games, but of fond memories and of deep friendships.26
23
Gary Alan Fine, Shared Fantasy, 130; Daniel Pargman, “Word and code, code as world”, in Artigo
apresentado na confer^ e ncia (Melbourne 2003).
24
A list of Tekumel publications is available at <http://www.tekumel.com/about_faq.html.
25
Discussing this novel posed an ethical dilemma. The work is clearly Barker’s – not only does his share
his writing style and interests, but it is published in the name of one of his ancestors. (It is also attributed to
him in at least one library catalogue.) It refers extensively to the Muslim and South Asian heritage, including
a quotation from an eleventh-century Arabic tome on warfare, and dialogue about the esoteric cosmology
(
of Ibn Arabı̄, and the theory of the “divine attributes of majesty and beauty” (asmā) al-jalāl wa al-jamāl).
Hence, any discussion of the intersection of Barker’s beliefs and writing should include this work. This
novel has actually been discussed more extensively in academic literature than his Tekumel novels, and, in
my view, the writing is superior. However, the novel explores potentially inflammatory political viewpoints,
and it was impressed upon me that it was best to preserve the façade of anonymity. I thus will leave it to
the interested reader to dig it up – as Barker himself said, “Dig, dig, dig!” (See note 31.)
26
Barker’s description of these groups, and the differences between them, is quoted in Gary Alan Fine,
Shared Fantasy, 145–146. See also Giovanna Fregni, Notes from the Thursday Night Group (St. Paul:
Tekumel Foundation, 2003); and Jeff Berry’s account of the gaming groups in Chris Kutalik, “Tales from
Tekumel’s First Campaign: An Interview with Jeff Berry”, in Hill Cantons (November 13, 2010) <http://hill-
cantons.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/tales-from-tekumels-first-campaign.html. Accessed December 28, 2016.
V 3937
Barker led a compartmentalized life. As a result, most of his university colleagues

had no idea that he was a fantasy/science-fiction author, and almost no Muslims
knew about T ekumel.27 After suffering protracted health problems, including hepati-
tis which he contracted in India, Barker passed away at the age of 83 on March 16,
2012, survived by his wife, works, and fans; and was eulogized as the “father of
Urdu (bābā-ye Urdu)”.28 It was after his death that the various aspects of his life
began to merge; colleagues wrote of his gaming interests, and now Barker is fea-
tured on the Islam and Science Fiction website.29 Nevertheless, it is the synergy
between his beliefs, travels, interests, and studies in Tekumel that makes Tekumel
unique.
Barker’s wedding photo30
27
I concluded this after inquiries among other academics, as well as efforts to find Muslims who had
played Tekumel during Barker’s lifetime (of whom I found one, in Germany; in contrast, it is not diffi-
cult to find Muslims who played Dungeons & Dragons). Several Tekumel fans said that the separation
was intentional, and that he did not want his university colleagues or other Muslims to know about his
gaming hobby.
28
Sajida Alvi, “In Memoriam: Professor Abd al-Rahman Barker”.
29
Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmed, “Tekumel”, in Islam and Science Fiction <http://www.islamscifi.-
com/tekumel/>. Accessed December 24, 2016.
30
Personal photo, Jeff Berry.
394
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Barker was an aficionado of antique weaponry and armour31
kumel?
What is Te
Socially and culturally, Tekumel is as complex – and as alien to modern think-

ing – as Byzantium, ancient Egypt, Tenochtitlan, or the India of the Mughals.
[. . .] The discerning reader will indeed perceive elements taken from [. . .]
Egypt, the Aztecs and Mayans, the Hellenic Age, Mughal India, and mediaeval
Europe. – M. A. R. Barker32
Summarizing the world of Tekumel is a challenge given the nearly 200 publica-
tions available on it, including meticulous descriptions of clans, histories, religions,
and languages – often in miniscule print. Barker even provided drawings, music,
and recipes.33 Furthermore, Barker was copious but not straightforward in his
world-building. Rather than spoon-feeding players and readers, he liked to keep the
mystery alive. For instance, when a player inquired about the subtleties of
Tekumelani theology, Barker advised:
Dig, dig, dig! You wouldn’t want me to just up and blat it out, would you? It’s
more fun to dig until you find it. I should tell you that much of Tekumel’s
“mystery” has now come to light through the determined efforts of dozens of
31
32
M. A. R. Barker, Tekumel Source Book: The World of the Petal Throne (n.p.: Gamescience, 1983
[reprinted by the Tekumel Foundation in 2014]), 1.
33
Barker’s rendition of the music of Tekumel is available online at Dave Romm, “‘Tekumel Music’ by
MAR Barker”, in YouTube <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v5Dhhrfu-jx-8. Accessed 23 December
2016. Food and food ideas have been compiled in Bob Dushay, “A Noble Feast”, in The Eye of All-
Seeing Wonder [a Tekumel magazine], vol. 5 (Summer 1995) <http://www.tekumel.com/eoasw5_12.
html. Barker’s drawings bring to life his game books.
V 3959
gamers like yourselves, but there are still some very large secrets undiscovered,
adventures unfinished, and ideas unexplored.34
This resulted in protracted speculation over T ekumel’s secrets.35

However, in brief, the premise behind Tekumel is that, in the twenty-first cen-
tury, a nuclear war devastated human society, and the only survivors were Arab,
Mayan, and Tamil; hence, they form the racial, linguistic, and cultural basis for his
society. However, Barker stresses that his world is unique, and not a reproduction
of any of the above.36 Fast forward 60,000 years, and humanity has colonized the
stars, including a planet called Tekumel. Upon arrival to Tekumel, the humans
pushed the native races into “reservations”, whereupon the native races bided their
time until they could reassert themselves; no doubt, a view sharpened during his
time among the Klamath.37 Tekumel flourished until, one day, “something badTM
happened”, and it was taken out of the normal universe and dropped into a
“pocket plane”, whereupon the stars went out, and society fell into chaos.
Advanced technology was lost, and society eventually rebuilt itself into a
mediaeval-era, clan-based, heavily stratified society, rife with political and reli-
gious intrigue.38
Key features of Tekumel’s “pocket plane” are rational explanations for magic and
polytheism. On Tekumel, magic works to the degree that it stifles the redevelopment of
technology. After all, why build machines when one has magic, especially when magic
serves as a tool of the religious hierarchy and the state? Additionally, the “pocket plane”
hosts powerful supernatural beings, which present themselves as demigods, resulting in
competing temples arranged along the axis of “stability versus change” (as opposed to
the traditional “good versus evil” ). In short, Tekumel is characterized by: (a) languages
and worldviews resembling those found among Native Americans and in the pre-
modern Muslim world; (b) a heavily stratified, clan-based, and culturally stagnant soci-
ety; (c) complex political and religious intrigue; (d) magic as technology; (e) the absence
of the notions of good and evil, and (f ) a realistic polytheism. All of this is a generaliza-
tion; a full analysis of the races and peoples of Tekumel would require several doctoral
theses.
34
M. A. R. Barker, The Blue Room, vol. 1, message 10. Note that for ease of reading, I have minimized
the use of unfamiliar words, and confined myself to adjectives such as “Tekumelani” rather than more
specific terms. Apologies to all Tekumel purists!
35
This is particularly apparent on the Tekumel email lists such as The Blue Room and the two Yahoo
groups, on which how things “really” are on Tekumel is debated.
36
M. A. R. Barker, T
ekumel Source Book, 1–3.
37
M. A. R. Barker, T
ekumel Source Book, 3.
38
M. A. R. Barker, Tekumel Source Book, 3. Tekumelani political and religious intrigue forms the basis
of Barker’s novels.
396
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A collection of materials by and about Barker, including game books for

T
ekumel and T ekumel miniatures.39
Barker and Tolkien
I must ask the reader to view the world of Tekumel in comparison with J. R.
R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth. A study of the background detail and society of
each will force the reader to the conclusion that the former work is, if any-
thing, at least as painstakingly and lovingly detailed as that of the acknowl-
edged master of the fantasy world in toto.
– Gary Gygax, co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons40
Because Barker is so often compared to Tolkien, it is illustrative to discuss Tekumel in

light of Tolkien’s Middle Earth. On the surface, Barker and Tolkien followed similar life
paths. Both were linguists and professors who, from childhood, developed detailed fan-
tasy worlds – complete with histories, myths, and languages. Both published novels, and
each of their worlds guided the earliest fantasy role-playing games: Dungeons & Dragons
(Tolkien’s) and the Empire of the Petal Throne (Barker’s). As seen above, even in the first
printing of the Empire of the Petal Throne, the co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons, Gary
Gygax (1938–2008), makes the comparison between Tolkien and Barker clear.41
Additionally, both Barker and Tolkien were deeply committed to adopted religions –
in the case of Tolkien, Catholicism; and in the case of Barker, Sunni Islam. (Barker took a
dim view of Muslim sects, which he felt tarnished the pristine nature of Islamic
39
Personal photo by collector.
40
M. A. R. Barker, Empire of the Petal Throne (Lake Geneva, Wisconsin: TSR, 1975), v.
41
M. A. R. Barker, Empire of the Petal Throne (Lake Geneva, Wisconsin: TSR, 1975), v.
V 397
11
teachings.)42 Both used fantasy worlds to explore ethics and theology, and both of their
work was grounded in ancient mythologies. Both lived quiet, retiring lives as esteemed
professors, with lifelong commitments to their wives, and expressed themselves primar-
ily through their fiction.
However, this is where the similarity ends. While Barker and Tolkien may have fol-
lowed similar paths, Tekumel is as different from Middle Earth as night is from day. While
Tolkien’s work reflects his religious ideals, Tekumelani religion has been described as the
“antithesis of [Barker’s] adopted religion of Islam”.43 While Tolkien’s work plays out the
battle between good and evil, Barker dismisses the paradigm of good and evil entirely
(“Good Zoroastrians, all!”, as he critiques it),44 and instead explores moral ambiguity and
the darker side of the human experience, such as slavery, human sacrifice, death worship,
and gladiatorial combat.45 As one player put it: “The difference between good and evil
[on Tekumel] is that the evil guys like to sacrifice humans every day, while the good guys
do it only once or twice a week.”46 Clearly, Tekumelani morality opens the door to some
serious moral relativism, and this is one of the reasons why Dungeons & Dragons was
seen as a game for adolescents, but Empire of the Petal Throne as a game for adults.
And while Tolkien recreated a mediaeval European mythos, and portrayed “good” as
“white” and “evil” as “black”, Barker drew upon a non-European mythos, where “dark”
was normative and “white” was feared. As Mark Barrowcliffe notes sardonically in his
memoir on role-playing games:
There are lessons [in The Lord of the Rings] about what good looks like – white
and Nordic as in the elves – and what bad looks like – black as in the orcs
and Southrons. The Southrons even obligingly ride elephants and wear turbans
to drive the point home. Also, just in case you were in danger of missing the
point, they come from the south.47
42
In “Create a Religion”, Barker writes, “I suspect there will always be counter-arguments, splinter
sects, heresies, re-interpretations, and religious squabbles. Even the fiercely monotheistic and icono-
clastic religion of Islam has these tendencies. Somebody always comes along to spoil an utopia.” M. A.
R. Barker, “Create a Religion in Your Spare Time for Fun and Profit: A Discussion of Religious Consider-
ations for Realistic Fantasy Role Playing Games”, first published in Gryphon: The Forum of Fantasy &
Science Fiction Gaming, no. 2 (Fall 1980) <http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/1761/Create-a-
Religion?it51. Accessed December 26, 2016, 5. However, elsewhere, he reflects a more nuanced famili-
arity with the varieties of Islamic practice. For instance, in his pseudonymous novel (see note 24), his
(
main character’s love interest is Shi i, and he compares temple chanting in Tekumel to Sufi chanting.
M. A. R. Barker, The Blue Room, vol. 5, no. 131.
43
Joseph P. Laycock, Dangerous Games, 65.
44
M. A. R. Barker, “Create a Religion”, 13.
45
Barker argues that such things are not deleterious for adults as long as they are projected off into a
fantasy world, although he recommends some discretion for children. “Interview: M. A. R. Barker”,
20–25: 24.
46
47
Mark Barrowcliffe, The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons and Growing Up Strange (London: Macmil-
lan, 2007), 77–78.
398
V
“Good” and “bad” also sound different in Tolkien’s and Barker’s works. Both Tolkien and
Barker developed detailed languages for their worlds. However, the languages that the
“good guys” speak in The Lord of the Rings are drawn from Old English and Nordic lan-
guages. Barker’s languages, however, are drawn from Native American and Islamicate
tongues (including but not limited to Aztec, Mayan, Persian, Turkish, Arabic, and Urdu –
with a smattering of Welsh). He even requires his players to pronounce the Arabic qāf
and ghayn, and to write in true academic fashion with full diacritics (that is, T
e kumel, not
48
Tekumel). In sum, Tolkien’s world is comforting and familiar, while Barker’s is alien and
feared.
Mughal Monopoly, another game hand-drawn by Barker49
kumel
The sociology of Te
This is a fantasy world? You sound like you’re discussing one of those real his-
torical societies in Asia.
– Peter Huston, specialist in East Asian Studies50
48
M. A. R. Barker, Empire of the Petal Throne, 107; Gary Alan Fine, Shared Fantasy, 129. Qāf must have
been particularly memorable, because Barrowcliffe recalls it as well. Mark Barrowcliffe, The Elfish
Gene, 166. Typesetting diacritics was a challenge in previous decades, and older Tekumel publications
have diacritics painstakingly hand-written in.
49
50
Discussion after Barker’s death on the H-Asia e-mail list. Peter Huston, “Muhammad Abd-al-Rahman
Barker, 1929–2012 (2)” (March 25, 2012), in H-ASIA.
V 399
13
Almost certainly, Tekumel reflects Barker’s own adventures and misadventures in

South Asia, and as a white convert to Islam. On Tekumel, white skin is unknown, and
blue eyes are a curse.51 Tellingly, Barker recommends new players to start out as foreign-
ers who wash up on shore and stay at the “foreigner’s quarter” until they have learned
the lay of the land. Tekumel is heavily socially stratified, with an “Eastern” approach to
social formalities, and twenty-three words for the pronoun “you”; unlike in other strategy
games, social class and social interactions are governed by game mechanics, such as
attribute scores and dice rolls. Once outside the foreigner’s quarter, players must be care-
ful not to commit a faux pas – because doing so could get them impaled.52 It is not diffi-
cult to see Barker’s own experiences in this, as his anecdote shows:
We American males make fun of each other, using jibes and sarcasm to embel-
lish our conversations and establish bonds. When I did this with Indian and
Pakistani friends, I got myself into lots of trouble! They have a wonderful sense
of humour, too, but the manifestations and the “buttons they push” were VERY
different. I have now learned to behave quite differently in their society. This
is exaggerated when I deal with non-Westerners who have less exposure to
American/European norms. Try kidding a Baluchi tribesman about his wife,
and he’ll hand you your head!53
Successful players might be adopted into a mid-level clan, but not the aristocracy (which
would be unrealistic); this can be compared to his experiences marrying and socially
integrating into a different culture.54
Barker held an anthropologist’s view that American individualism and informality
were aberrations from the human norm. Tekumel’s clan-based society resembles that of
some Native American peoples as well as the extended family in South Asia.55 Clan
members live, eat, work, and raise their children together, and make decisions for the
good of the clan, not the individual. Religious and political authorities also restrict indi-
vidual freedoms. To him, it was unrealistic to re-invent the mediaeval world as a place
51
“Even now, even here, she must hide her blue eyes; people here were superstitious, after all.” M. A.
R. Barker, The Man of Gold (St. Paul: Tekumel Foundation, 2014 [first published DAW Books, 1984]),
346; Patrick Brady, “You’re not in Kansas anymore”, in The Eye of All-Seeing Wonder, vol. 4 (Spring
1995). <http://www.tekumel.com/eoasw4_02.html > Accessed December 28, 2016; Dave Morris, Tir-
kelu: Role-Playing in M. A. R. Barker’s Classic World of Tekumel, 3. Barker may also have been playing
on the metaphorical association between blue eyes and evil in classical Arabic.
52
The first Tekumel podcast treats this well. Kellogg, Scott; Maliszewski, James; and Raymond, Victor,
“The Hall of Blue Illumination – Episode 1: ‘Fresh Off the Boat’” (November 2016). < http://tekumel-
podcast.com/>. Accessed December 28, 2016.
53
M. A. R. Barker, The Blue Room, vol. 2, no. 74. Elsewhere, as Barker put it, “The sort of ‘we’re all
equal’ humour that modern Europeans are used to would not have been appropriate in Queen
Victoria’s presence either. On Tekumel it is downright dangerous.” M. A. R. Barker, The Blue Room, vol.
10, no. 282.
54
See M. A. R. Barker, The Blue Room, vol. 2, message 61.
55
14
V
where individuals had free reign to traipse around amassing power and wealth. This, to
him, was a major failing of Dungeons & Dragons as well as most fantasy literature:
Even “knights errant” have homes and families, property which they must man-
age in order to eat, and duties within the society other than going about pot-
ting off dragons. “Priests” are usually even more restricted [. . .]. Most of these
prosaic details can be glossed over – it is fantasy after all – but realism does
become a problem when a “priest” shirks his responsibilities to go off adven-
turing. The same is true of the “soldier” who has a military command yet
spends his time exploring draughty dungeons or out rescuing fair damsels.
This is not just a case for ignoring the nitty-gritty for playability’s sake; it is fla-
grant, outright dereliction of duty! In this world such a miscreant would be
fired or court-martialled. In less gentle eras he would swing on the gallows.
[. . .] One only has to glance through any ethnography, any history, any
description of a real human society, to realise that ALL societies have estab-
lished institutions to prevent just this sort of thing: to guard, reinforce, and
sanctify “accepted” behaviour and to exclude or punish those on the fringes,
the vagabond, the criminal, the nouveu riche, and the parvenu.56
Tekumel also departed from the norm in its approach to women and sexuality –
both of which are wholly neglected by Tolkien, to the degree that, in his memoir on
role-playing games, Mark Barrowcliffe observes:
There are, for instance, lessons to be learned in The Lord of the Rings, for any-
one who cares to take them. I was slowly absorbing some of them – women
aren’t very important or interesting and generally play a subservient role. A tra-
ditional feminist criticism of men is that they divide women into madonnas
and whores. This isn’t the case with The Lord of the Rings. There are no
whores in that. The only women represented there are the unattainable elf
maidens or the fat and friendly hobbit mothers – interestingly, sex is entirely
absent from the book. [. . .]57
Fantasy and science-fiction were (and still are) male-dominated, with women typi-
cally relegated to damsels in distress or sex objects. One way that Barker allowed
women to take more engaging roles in his games and in his fiction was through his
(“liberated” ) woman. Upon coming of age, a woman
introduction of the aridani
could leave behind some social protections in exchange for the freedom to pursue
56
M. A. R. Barker, “Create a Religion”, 15. Elsewhere, Barker says: “I very quickly saw the problem with
this [D&D], that it didn’t have much of a world to it. It was fun and you could go up to great levels [in
experience and power] and you go back to your barracks or tavern or whatever it was and you went to
sleep and stayed there until next adventure. You and your friends simply got together and went off and
entered the labyrinth and went down and proceeded to kill more stuff.” Barker in Gary Alan Fine,
Shared Fantasy, p.17.
57
Mark Barrowcliffe, The Elfish Gene, 77–78.
V 15
401
any profession and take multiple husbands (or wives).58 Due to this, Tekumel
attracted more women gamers than games such as Dungeons & Dragons.59 Addi-
tionally, Barker envisioned Tekumel as a society where sexuality was not treated as
a moral issue, and hence was treated with disinterest, except insofar as it threatened
the good of the clan. There was also no stigma about homosexuality – something
which made some of his fans question whether he was a “real” Muslim.60 Some of
his open attitude towards sexuality could be chalked off to wishful thinking, but it
is also likely that he drew it from his anthropological studies of non-Judaeo-
Christian-Islamic peoples, and wished to portray a world that was authentically
different.
In short, Barker’s multiculturalism wasn’t just about flavor, it was about depth –
the real, but invisible ways that different peoples think and act differently. Cultural
immersion in T ekumel could be such a challenge for the average American or Euro-
pean that Barker compares it to “culture shock”, and, in his seminal study on fantasy
role-playing games, Gary Alan Fine compares learning to play Tekumel to the acqui-
sition of a second culture.61 Nevertheless, players acclimatized to this “geek heav-
en”.62 One player writes:
After all, it’s the painstaking detail, the exotic world, the coherence and vision
that attract most people to Tekumel. Being Tsolyani is a real role-player’s chal-
lenge, especially for those of us brought up in an egalitarian Western society.
There’s a mythology and a history that actually make sense, not just some bas-
tardised, third-class Middle Earth.63
Without Tekumel, few people – if any – could ever understand the diversity of
Barker’s experiences and understandings of the human heritage. Through Tekumel,
they could.
58
Bob Alberti and M. A. R. Barker, Mitl anyal (The Gods): Being a Compendium of the Theologies, Dei-
ties, Rites and Rituals of the Empire of the Petal Throne (n.l.: n.p.: 1997–2001), 10.
59
Gary Alan Fine, Shared Fantasy, 133–134; conversation with science-fiction novelist and Tekumel
fan in the United Kingdom, March 14, 2016.
60
Apparently, Barker created provisions for homosexuality because he had homosexual players who
wanted to feel welcomed. Barrowcliffe feels that the omission of homosexuality from other games at
that time itself had a message: “Male homosexuality wouldn’t be much of an omission but in a world
that has bothered to include its own system of distance measurement, its own musical instruments, to
provide charts for detailing a character’s eye colour [. . .] it surely can’t be an oversight. [. . .]”; he says
that he and his friends “conveniently avoided” homosexual non-player-characters in Tekumel. Mark
Barrowcliffe, The Elfish Gene, 278.
61
M. A. R. Barker, The Blue Room, vol. 2, message 44; Gary Alan Fine, Shared Fantasy, 149.
62
Mark Barrowcliffe, The Elfish Gene, 164.
63
Editor, “On the Death of Tekumel”, in The Eye of All-Seeing Wonder, vol. 6 (Winter 1996) <http://
www.tekumel.com/eoasw6_05.html. Accessed December 28, 2016.
16
V
ekumel’s fictional languages64

An elaborate game document in one of T
Religion
Tolkien had this Britisher’s sort of attitude that religion is something you do in
church, and. . . It doesn’t really do that much to your daily life. . . Whereas I’d
been living and working in societies where religion is just permeating the
atmosphere. . . Even the simple villagers are behaving in ways that they con-
sider related directly to religion, rather than secular politics or something like
this. – M. A. R. Barker65
That, in and of itself, would be sufficient to put Tekumel on the map. However,
Barker’s most painstaking efforts were not in fantasy sociology, but rather in fantasy reli-
gion. As mentioned above, both Barker and Tolkien were invested in questions of reli-
gion. However, while the relationship between Tolkien’s books and beliefs is clear,
Barker’s is complex. Barker was a Muslim who wrote fantasy and science fiction, but he
did not write about Islam in science fiction. In fact, Barker even implied that his fiction
was at odds with his own faith,66 and I was warned that Barker drew a “VERY clear line
between his own faith and what he created from his games” and that any hint of Islam
would only be “confirmation bias”.67 However, while Barker may not have been writing
about Islam, he certainly had a lot to say about religion; anyone who writes several
64
65
Barker quoted in Joseph Laycock, Dangerous Games, 64.
66
“The polytheistic pantheon of Tekumel’s gods and goddesses would horrify any Muslim, of course
[. . .]. Tekumel is, by American standards, a cruel and violent place.” See “Interview: M. A. R. Barker”,
20–25: 24.
67
Personal emails from Barker’s associates, March 12, 2016 and March 15, 2016.
V 403
17
hundred pages entitled The Gods has religion on his mind.68 And, Barker explains reli-
gion on Tekumel with reference to Earth religions – especially Islam.69
One of Barker’s main contributions to the fantasy/science-fiction gaming genre was
the treatment of the nature and role of religion as central to daily life.70 As seen in the
above quotation, he critiqued the way that fantasy authors and world-builders – includ-
ing Tolkien – neglected organized religion. He argued that religion – with all its
trappings, such as religious authority, religious institutions, “splinter sects, heresies,
re-interpretations, and religious squabbles” – was fundamental to any mediaeval society,
and that any fantasy/science-fiction author worth their salt would weave it into their
work.71 This perspective may have been derived from his anthropological studies, but it
is also a fundamentally Muslim approach, in that twentieth-century Muslims often
describe Islam as a “full-time religion” and “not a religion, but a way of life”.
To assist potential world-builders, Barker outlines detailed guidelines for the con-
struction of fictional religion in “Create a Religion in your Spare Time for Fun and Profit:
A Discussion of Religious Considerations for Realistic Fantasy Role Playing Games”.
According to him, a responsible author will not simply patch together bits and pieces of
mediaeval Christianity and revamp them as the Church of Baal. Instead, he or she will
consider (a) temples and priesthoods, (b) beliefs in life after death, (c) beliefs in the
supernatural such as ghosts or magic, (d) competing religions and sects, (e) personal
responses to dogma ranging from “atheism and cynicism to blind faith and wild-eyed
fanaticism”, (f ) “regional variations, class and caste variations, and variations between
the tenets taught to commoners and those held by the intellectual elite”, (g) the historical
evolution of religion, and – most importantly – (h) the role of religion in politics. “A
good simulation ought to take some of these historical and sociological factors into
account,” he advises, “and a few of them can be put to good purpose even within a sim-
ple campaign.” In essence, Barker demands an anthropologist’s level of realism, even for
games.
In Tekumel, Barker practices what he preaches. To simplify religion for new players,
he describes a pantheon of “lords of stability” and “lords of change” (as well as outlawed
gods called the “Pariah gods”, who are bent on destroying Tekumel). Each of these gods
and goddesses has an associated “aspect”, and a temple. These demigods are not
68
That is, Bob Alberti and M. A. R. Barker, Mitl anyal (The Gods). Bob Alberti, the co-author, also has a
lot to say about religion. See Rob Alberti, “Get to Know an Atheist: Bob Alberti”, in YouTube <https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v5ha_ph_KePHU. Accessed December 31, 2016.
69
For instance, see The Blue Room, vol. 1, messages 10–11; vol. 2, message 85; M. A.R. Barker, The Blue
Room, vol. 10, no. 299. The Blue Room contains both extensive discussion about Tekumelani religion
and sheds light on how Barker saw real-life religions, including Islam, as well.
70
Joseph Laycock, Dangerous Games, 63–65.
71
“I cannot conceive of an ancient, classical, mediaeval, or ‘legendary’ world without some form of
organised’ religion. . . ‘Religion,’ in some form or another, is so central to the lives of most human beings
that it cannot be omitted, minimised, or ignored. M. A. R. Barker, “Create a Religion”, 20
18
V
benevolent; they have their own agendas, and look down on people like ants.72 The
existence of these beings is so clear that anyone who claims to be an atheist or an agnos-
tic upon T ekumel is either blind or a fool”.73 “Good” and “evil” are foreign to Tekumel;
instead, people aspire to “nobility”. People are “noble” when they according to social
expectations, and “evil” when they do not. This leads to some serious moral relativism.
Barker also refers occasionally to religious conversion on Tekumel: while, on Tekumel,
it is generally tolerated, “it is no easier on Tekumel than it is on Earth”.74 It is not difficult
to see his own life in that sentiment.
All of this is a tremendous oversimplification: different races on Tekumel have differ-
ent conceptions of the supernatural. As in the real world, there is no guarantee that
priests on T ekumel are getting it right, and Barker even delivers “authentic” theological
manuscripts – some handwritten with gold illumination and complete with margin notes
– thereby allowing the reader to come to their own conclusion about the nature of the
supernatural and metaphysical in his world. That is, if the reader can understand the fic-
tional languages they are written in.
The occult
The literature of fantasy and the fantastic, especially in science fiction, is much
in demand, but we still do not know its intimate relationship with the different
occult traditions. – Mircea Eliade, “The Occult and the Modern World”75
This leads to the sensitive subject of the relationship between Tekumel and the
occult. This subject is sensitive for two reasons. First, differentiating between “religion”
and “the occult” is tricky, since both engage with the supernatural. Return back to
Barker’s list. “Temples” and “priesthoods”, “dogma” and “fanatics”: they all fall under
72
M. A. R. Barker, The Book of Ebon Bindings (King of Prussia, Pennsylvania: Different World Publica-
tions & Theatre of the Mind, 1991 [1978]), 5.
73
Bob Alberti and M. A. R. Barker, Mitl anyal (The Gods), 15. Elsewhere, Barker explains: “The gods are
too real for ‘miracles’ to make much impression on the Tekumelani public. What you and I would con-
sider ‘miracles’ are old hat to the sorcerers of the temples: flying, fireballs, visions in the sky, healing,
etc. etc. The gods cannot thus be doubted, not when they occasionally reply to prayers, perform
‘miracles,’ and otherwise show up to awe their clienteles. How can these ‘gods’ be false when every-
thing humans demand of a ‘god’ is available from them and through them? Anybody who argues that
the ‘gods’ are false is clearly not all that compos mentis.” M. A. R. Barker, The Blue Room, vol. 10, no.
299. In his later years, he hinted that there were secrets to be discovered about the nature of these
“Pariah gods”, but he never revealed them. On some level, I suspect that to Barker, the “Pariah gods”
reflected the challenge of adopting a religion that was virtually unknown in the society around him.
74
M. A. R. Barker, The Blue Room, vol. 1, message 6; see also vol. 8, message 17; vol. 10, message 275.
75
Mircea Eliade, “Occult and the Modern World”, in Occultism, Witchcraft, and Cultural Fashions:
Essays in Comparative Religions (Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1976), 67–68.
V 19
405
safe, conventional understandings of religion. But what about “ghosts and magic”? Are
we still talking about religion? And if not, why not?
Typically, the dividing line between “religion” and “occultism” hinges on social and
theological acceptability. At the university, it is acceptable to believe in God, but not astrol-
ogy. At the mosque, it is acceptable to pray, but not to cast a spell.76 Implying that Barker
had any special interest in the occult (which he obviously did) might be taken as slander.
Furthermore, admitting to occultism in fantasy role-playing games is sensitive
because of the Christian opposition to fantasy role-playing games, especially in America.
The main accusations against games such as Dungeons & Dragons were:
(a) They led youth to the occult – that is, to movements situated as heterodox to Christianity
(such as paganism or Satanism), and which were associated with “evil” or “false beliefs”.
(b) They led players to lose sight of reality and live out their fantasy worlds.77
These two accusations can be seen as one and the same. Both have been refuted – the over-
whelming majority of gamers neither become occultists nor schizophrenics78 – and, perhaps
due to its darker side, Tekumel players are particularly adamant that it is “just a game”.79
With respect to Dungeons & Dragons, these views are ironic, given that Dungeons &
76
Like Christians, Muslims have complex and shifting views on what spiritual acts are theologically
acceptable and which are forbidden. For a more nuanced discussion of Muslim views towards magic
and the occult, see Michael Muhammad Knight, Magic in Islam (New York: Tarcher, 2016); Travis
Zadeh, “Commanding Demons and Jinn: The Sorcerer in Early Islamic Thought”, in No Tapping around
Philology: A Festschrift in Honor of Wheeler McIntosh Thackston Jr.’s 70th Birthday, ed. Alireza
Korangy and Daniel J. Sheffield (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2014), 131–160.
77
Joseph Laycock, Dangerous Games. The fear that young people would lose themselves in their fan-
tasy worlds was the subject of the 1982 movie Mazes & Monsters (which I remember from my child-
hood ), in which a troubled youth loses touch with his “real” identity and believes he is his game
character.
78
In Dangerous Games, Joseph Laycock strongly refutes these ideas. However, in The Elfish Gene,
Barrowcliffe reflects more ambiguously on the relationship, in his life, between fantasy gaming and an
unhealthy interest in occultism (both of which he pursued in depth). On the one hand, Barrowcliffe
dates his interest in occultism to childhood, and says that Dungeons & Dragons kept him from going in
deeper, because he knew he could never do in the “real world” what he could do in a game, such as
shooting magic fireballs. At the same time, he does provide a narrative of going from Dungeons & Drag-
ons to Tekumel to attempting to cast magic spells in real life. Ironically, it was his first attempt to sum-
mon a demon in the park that – he says – brought home to him the clash between fantasy and reality.
Mark Barrowcliffe, The Elfish Gene, 310–315.
79
Long-time players emphasized that Tekumel was “just a game”, and reacted with abhorrence at any
hint of crossing the boundaries between fantasy and real life. Perhaps the closest thing to a confusion
of fantasy with reality was during the raid on Stephen Jackson Games and the Illuminati Online web-
site, which hosted immersive games involving political intrigue, as well as Tekumel material. In this
bizarre operation, secret service agents broke in, confiscated materials, and shut down the website,
while munching on take-out from Whataburger and leaving the wrappers on the floor. While the raid
was not linked to Tekumel, the agents reportedly thought they really were confiscating subversive
material. See Joseph Laycock, Dangerous Games, 154–156; “SJ Games vs. the Secret Service”, in SJ
Games <http://www.sjgames.com/SS/>. Accessed December 29, 2016.
20
V
Dragons is rooted in a mediaeval Christian worldview, not occultism. However, Tekumel

has a much more symbiotic relationship with real-world occultism: not only did Barker
draw inspiration from real-world occult practices, but active members of the American occult
revival and neo-pagan movement played at his game table.80 A complicated relationship,
indeed.
Sensitivities and complexities aside, the staggering amount of real-world detail that
Barker provides in his fictional systems of astrology, numerology, and demonology
makes it clear that he was an ardent armchair occultist. For instance, Tekumelani astrol-
ogy treats not only birth signs but the ascendant, the mid-heaven, and planetary conjunc-
tions in the form of the square, the trine, the opposition, and so on. A sample
astrological chart resembles planetary charts drawn by real-life astrologers.81 Tekumelani
numerology is derived from either the Arabic abjad or the Hebrew Kabbalah.82 Even the
initiatory structure of Tekumel’s temples mimics that of Western occult organizations,
such as the Golden Dawn, which Barker was said to have had encyclopaedic knowledge
of.83 Elsewhere, Barker betrays an above-average interest in magic through his postula-
tion of seven theoretical universes in which magic might operate.84
Privately, Barker’s friends confirmed his fascination with the occult. Two described
him as a competent astrologer who, before the advent of home computers, drew horo-
scopes by hand using an Urdu ephemeris.85 Barker reportedly drew inspiration not only
from Western occult manuals but from a rare collection of Arab, South Asian, and Tibetan
occult manuscripts – and looked down on the Western occult tradition as being deriva-
tive of the Eastern.86 Apparently, in India, Barker had even assisted in a Muslim exorcism
(which in the Islamic tradition is not necessarily “occult”, but does relate to the
80
Some of these players worked for the occult publisher Llewellyn. Personal e-mail from Tekumel
players, March 18, 2016 and December 14, 2016
81
Bob Alberti and M. A. R. Barker, Mitl anyal (The Gods), 19. Barker was reported to have spent time
teaching players the “system” of Tekumel’s astrology, which resulted in articles like: Patrick Brady,
“Celestial Harmonics: How a Character’s Horoscope Influences his Destiny”, in The Eye of All-Seeing
Wonder, no. 5 (Summer 1995). <http://www.tekumel.com/eoasw5_07.html; personal e-mail, Decem-
ber 12, 2106; M. A. R. Barker, The Blue Room, vol. 14, no. 4 (the latter discusses both astrology and
divination).
82
M. A. R. Barker, “Tsolyani Numerology” (n.p., n.d.) < http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/1762/
Tsolyani-Numerology?it51. Accessed 26 December 2016. Arabic and Hebrew numerology as suffi-
ciently similar so as to be indistinguishable after being fictionalized.
83
As described in Israel Regardie & John Michael Greer, The Golden Dawn: The Original Account of
the Teachings, Rites, and Ceremonies of the Hermetic Order, 7th ed. (Woodbury, Minnesota: Llewellyn,
2015). According to one of Barker’s friends, Barker used to out-occult occultists with his display of
“secret” knowledge about Western occult organizations, although he was never known to have
belonged to one. Personal e-mail, December 21, 2016.
84
M. A. R. Barker, “Create a Religion”, 19. See also the discussion of the nature of magic in M. A. R.
Barker, The Book of Ebon Bindings, 9- 13.
85
Personal e-mails from Tekumel players, March 14, 2016; December 12, 2016.
86
Personal e-mails from Tekumel players, March 14, 2016; December 12, 2016.
V 21
407
supernatural).87 This is, of course, in addition to his encounter with the shamanic mythos
of the Klamath. In other words, Barker not only drew on occultism, but he drew on non-
Western occultism, and integrated it into the fantasy genre.
Barker’s most curious – and controversial – work in this area is his fictional grimoire
of demon summoning called The Book of Ebon Bindings (1978). The Book of Ebon Bind-
ings is illustrative for several reasons. First, it is Barker’s most detailed explanation of
Tekumel’s religions. It is written in an immersion perspective, as a “translation” of a
“discovered” manuscript, complete with untranslatable words and a physical description
of the manuscript folio. It also reflects a rare synthesis of the many facets of Barker’s life.
The introduction to The Book of Ebon Bindings reflects the style – although not content –
of classical Islamic theological argument. It explores the debate between polytheism and
monotheism and the question of moral relativism versus moral absolutism; only, unlike
Muslim theologians, it argues for polytheism and moral relativism.88 It alludes to the
Islamic understanding of the attributes of Allah and the classical Islamic divisions of the
soul.89 Most likely, Barker was having some academic fun – albeit fun that would have
gone over most of his readers’ heads.
The main section of The Book of Ebon Bindings, however, provides instructions for
gruesome, violent, and explicit rites to summon demons – complete with illustrations
unsuitable for children. It is not only as far away from Islamic sensibilities as one can get,
but it inspired protest from some Mormons.90 These instructions for summoning
“Gereshma’a: He of the Mound of Skulls” should suffice in conveying the tone of the
work:
A diagramme of three adjoining pentagons shall be drawn upon the stone
flooring in a chalk composed of rust, the blood of a child, and corpse-tallow
[. . .] [T]he top of the latter shall face the place of the setting of the planet
Rıruchel [. . .]. The positions of the moons and the planets are of great import
in magical matters. [. . .]
87
One of Barker’s friends recounts: “I had the very real feeling that he’d ‘sat in’ on working sessions of
these practitioners and asked intelligent questions of them. He was very, very highly regarded by the
locals during his field work in South Asia, and he once mentioned being ‘called in’ as a sort of consul-
tant at an exorcism in India, as the locals felt that having Barker Sahib, the noted scholar and learned
man, present would materially aid the process. He told us that while he might not have personally
believed in what was happening, to the people involved it was a very real thing, and so he worked with
the exorcist and made learned comments as needed to back up the local practitioner. Just like any spe-
cialist called in on a consultation, really.” Of course, anecdotes like this should be understood that they
are being seen through two lenses – that of Barker, and that of Barker’s friend, as well as the passage of
time. Personal e-mail from a friend of Barker, December 20, 2016. Exorcisms (ruqyah) are not uncom-
mon in the Muslim world, while at the same time, they do not always fall into the category of “socially
acceptable”.
88
This theological argument is reproduced in Barker’s novel The Man of Gold, 43–44, only in the voices
of two characters.
89
M. A. R. Barker, The Book of Ebon Bindings, 4, 13.
90
Personal e-mail from long-time Tekumel player, March 20, 2016.
22
V
Thereafter let the evocator purify his body with the rainwater which has col-
lected in a grave and with the milk of a mother newly slain with her babe in
her arms [. . .] and enter into congress with his concubines and his womenfolk,
both living and dead. These things are pleasing to those who serve the All-
Lord, mighty Sarku, the Lord of Worms.91
Thematically, it bears little resemblance to the Muslim heritage, and evokes a far more
ancient terror of death and the demonic.92 In terms of contemporary literature, it best
resembles the early twentieth-century grimoire known as the Goetia (which Barker is
also said to have read), especially in its artwork, except that The Book of Ebon Bindings
is far more extensive and far less Latinate.
What would possess a quiet, reserved professor – and self-identified practicing
Muslim – to stamp his name on an intricate manual of demon summoning? Unlike most
Tekumel materials, The Book of Ebon Bindings is tangential to the game: it isn’t a rule-
book, as it’s designed to be unplayable. Some of his gaming friends said that it had to do
with game mechanics. A regular player at his gaming sessions kept trying to solve prob-
lems by summoning demons, and so Barker, out of frustration, wrote this book to
dissuade him. However, that answer is unsatisfactory; such a problem could have been
solved by a competent referee, and Barker was more than competent. Others said that
he was trying to outdo the Necronomicon, a controversial fictional grimoire published
shortly beforehand; when Barker saw it, he thought it was shoddy work, and thought he
could one-up it. This, still, is unsatisfactory, because most people don’t go around read-
ing the Necronomicon, let alone rewriting it.
I suspect there were deeper motivations at work. In the introduction to The Book of
Ebon Bindings, the fictional character who is “writing” the book says:
[T]here is a strong fascination inherent in the darker side of man’s dealings
with the supernatural [. . .] and it is hoped that the author will be forgiven for
indulging his own predilections.93
This reflects a sidebar in simplified edition of Tekumel’s rules:

Twentieth century belief is in gods that we can love or at least admire, but in
most eras Man has worshipped the gods that he fears. This is true of
Tekumel.94
91
M. A. R. Barker, The Book of Ebon Bindings, 28-9.
92
A few of the names of the demons in The Book of Ebon Bindings are of obvious Persian origin – such
as Nurgashte (“the light that has passed” ), Nimune (“appearance”), and perhaps Chargal; and his name
for the “lower realm” (Qelem, “pen”; or possibly a play on iqlı̄m, “clime”) is Arabic. However, most of
his demon names do not have any obvious Islamicate roots.
93
M. A. R. Barker, The Book of Ebon Bindings, v.
94
Dave Morris, Tirikelu: Role-playing in M. A. R. Barker’s classic world of Tekumel (first published in
The Eye of All-Seeing Wonder c. 1993), 66 <http://www.tekumel.com/downloads/Tirikelu.pdf.
Accessed 28 December 2016.
V 409
23
Perhaps, Barker felt that this approach was truer to the human condition. Additionally, in
his study on the sociology of fantasy role-playing games, Gary Alan Fine observes that,
especially for men, fantasy role-playing games provide a safe outlet for forbidden urges,
particularly regarding violence and sexuality;95 in the case of Barker, this could safely be
extended to theology.
Ultimately, I think that Barker was sublimating a deep fascination with the occult that
he found logically, professionally, and religiously unacceptable. While authors who
inspired him, such as Lovecraft, drew on a romanticized notion of the “East” as a place of
magic and mystery, Barker espoused an unusually dry interpretation of Islam with no
place for magic or spirits.96 While Muslim theologians traditionally admit to the reality
(albeit objectionability) of magic, Barker argued that the “least tractable” universe for
magic was one with an omnipotent, omniscient, benevolent God.97 He concludes his
argument by saying:
If man has direct, hot-line access to God through prayer - and if God is “Good”
(i.e. on mankind’s side essentially) – then what need is there of physical
devices: weapons, crucifixes, talismans, holy water, and the like? On this one I
pass. Go ask your friendly neighbourhood theologian.98
While he acknowledged that some Muslims believed in such things, he was not one of
them.99
In directing his interest in the occult into the realm of the fantastical, Barker was in
fact quite normal. As Jeffery J. Kripal writes in his study of the paranormal in contempo-
rary science-fiction:
Certain seemingly universal human experiences – out-of-body flight, magi-
cal influence, telepathic communication, secret forms of identity, altered
states of consciousness and energy – occupy a rather curious place in our
present Western culture. Whereas such marvels are vociferously denied (or
simply ignored ) in the halls of academic respectability, they are enthusiasti-
cally embraced in contemporary fiction, film, and fantasy. We are obviously
fascinated by such things and will pay billions of dollars for their special
display, and yet we will not talk about them, not at least in any serious and
sustained professional way. Popular culture is our mysticism. The public
95
Gary Alan Fine, Shared Fantasy, 68–71.
96
This can be surmised from all of Barker’s correspondence, as well as “Create a Religion”; however,
this description from one of his academic colleagues summarizes it best: “My impression of the late
Prof. Barker is that he was a good simple Muslim. I doubt very much that he was interested in any eso-
teric/Sufi doctrine. But, I might be wrong if someone knew him better. I think he was candid, open and
quite honest. In my view very few academics are candid and honest. Overwhelming majority are self-
ish, arrogant, and they think very high of themselves.” (March 22, 2016)
97
98
99
Personal e-mail from a friend of Barker, December 20, 2016.
24
V
realm is our esoteric realm. The paranormal is our secret in plain sight.
Weird.100
In Tekumel, the occult is a “secret in plain sight”. Today, while Barker still wouldn’t get
far at the mosque talking about astrology or demon summoning, the study of the “Islamic
occult” is burgeoning into a recognized and respectable academic field. Perhaps, if he
were beginning his career today, his approach may have been different.
When is a game not just a game?

By writing about occultism, Barker maintained the division between “fantasy” and
“reality”. However, that distinction becomes blurred when one considers Barker’s approach
to Tekumel. I do not believe that Barker actually saw Tekumel as fantasy. Instead, he saw
Tekumel as real, and “discovered” it through an act of occult-imaginal vision.
Let me clarify, before someone impales me. I am not implying that Barker ever confused
Tekumel with Earth, or attempted to live out his fantasies. I am not even implying that he
was a practicing occultist. (Opponents to fantasy role-playing games can all let out a deep
breath.) What I am suggesting is more nuanced. It is something that the opponents to fan-
tasy role-playing games missed, and it offers a hint as to why fantasy and science-fiction can
seem more religious than, say, Sex in the City or Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
Many spiritual and cultural traditions do not limit themselves to the binary of the
“real” and “unreal” world. Instead, they provide a third space – similar to a dream space
– which is real, but outside the “real” world. It exists supernaturally and can be sensed
and explored, but is not meant to be taken literally. In shamanic cultures – which Barker
was familiar with – it is the “other realm” that shamans travel in. To Barker’s occultist
(
friends, it was the astral plane. To Islamic philosophers, it is the ālam al-mithāl, or the
imaginal realm.101 To Star Trek fans, it is the final frontier. To Barker, was the “pocket
plane”. What unites all of these views is that this “other realm” is separate, accessible,
and realer than real. For those who are uncomfortable with metaphysics, the relationship
between fantasy and reality can be rephrased psychologically.
The original D & D brings one amazingly close to the archetypes of Jungian
psychology (the wise old man, the young hero), and may help us to peer into
our “collective unconscious”. [. . .] At its best, role-play offers a challenge to our
wits and wiles, while extending the potential for insight into ourselves.”102
100
Jefferey J. Kripal, Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred (Chicago & London:
University of Chicago Press, 2010), 7. I would like to thank Matt Melvin-Koushki for calling my attention
to Kripal’s books and for directing me to the term “occult-imaginal vision.
101
An excellent discussion of the relationship between the supernatural and art in Islamic philosophy,
and idea that, among Islamic philosophers, the imaginal realm could be realer than the “real” realm is
found in Laura Marks, “Real Images Flow: Mullā Sadrā Meets Film-Philosophy”, in Film-Philosophy, vol.
20 (2016) < http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/film.2016.0003, 24–46.
102
Kanterman 1979, in Gary Alan Fine, Shared Fantasy, 59.
V 25
411
It can even be discussed physiologically: monks in deep meditation and young children
in their imaginative phase share brain states.103 In other words, many of us may distin-
guish between fantasy and the transcendental, but the brain itself may not.
With that in mind, it is not farfetched to say that Barker saw Tekumel as existing in
some intermediate realm – whether that “reality” lived in a metaphysical realm, the col-
lective unconscious, or a “pocket plane” of his unconscious mind. Like Tolkien, Barker
took a visionary approach to world-building. Gary Alan Fine describes both Barker’s and
Tolkien’s mindset in less metaphysical terms:
These worlds are living realities for these men, and engrossment is possible to
a degree that most of us find impossible in our own daydreams [. . .] What
makes these two men special is that they have continued working on a single
fantasy world from childhood, and seem to revel in the detail, history, and
reality of that world.104
Barker himself describes himself as discovering Tekumel, not crafting it:

I tend to “see” Tekumel, not “reason” it. [. . .] I have no idea what sorts of
plants exist on Tekumel, for example, but if you ask me to step out into a
Tekumelani garden and DESCRIBE some, I can do it. [. . .] I “see” cities, peo-
ples, buildings, social institutions, etc. Knock on the door of any house in the
Five Empires, and I can tell you who lives there, what the family is like, what
clan and social level the household belongs to, their religious and social affilia-
tions – and all that. I can SEE this without thinking about it. It will be the same
if I ever pass that way again. How I do this I don’t know – I can’t remember
my own name on this world.105
[. . .] I am rather like a tourist on Tekumel: I look, I listen, I report. I have no
knowledge about a lot of subjects, but I can tell you what I perceive. Occa-
sionally, I can quote a scholar of Tekumel and perhaps provide some further
insight, but not all that often.106
One player called Barker’s approach “oracular”, and another called it “terrifying”.107
In a 1984 interview, Barker insisted that Tekumel did not arise from “dreams or mys-
tic visions”108 – although, such an assertion suggests that the idea had crossed his mind,
since most people do not go around disavowing such things. However, twenty years
103
Daniel L. Schacter, “EEG theta waves and psychological phenomena: A review and analysis”, in Bio-
logical Psychology, vol. 5, no. 1 (March 1977), 47–82. < http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/
pii/030105117790028X. Accessed December 29, 2016.
104
105
M. A. R. Barker, The Blue Room, vol. 2, no. 71.
106
M. A. R. Barker, The Blue Room, vol. 1, no. 30.; vol. 3, no. 199; vol. 1, no. 1.
107
Bob Alberti, The Blue Room, vol. 2, no. 72; personal e-mail from Tekumel player, March 18, 2016.
According to Fine, players would feel “embarrassed, as well as awed” upon the recognition that
Tekumel was Barker’s private world. Gary Alan Fine, Shared Fantasy, 136.
108
“Interview: M. A. R. Barker”, 20–25: 24.
26
V
later, Barker seems to open up about his relationship to Tekumel.109 In a departure from
writing in an immersion perspective (i.e. in the voice of a fictional character), he introdu-
ces a Tekumel supplement in his own voice. He begins in true form by outlining what is
essentially the classical Islamic theory of knowledge acquisition, which validates both
material and metaphysical sources of learning. That is, one may learn about something
through (a) physically sensing it with the five senses, (b) reading or hearing about it, (c)
instinct, (d) spiritual vision (or “scrying”), or (e) divine revelation.110 He then says:
It is to the category of scrying that this work pertains. This is different from
thinking, imagining, or meditating.111
He continues with a description of learning to “scry”:

Learning to scry is not easy. At first, one “sees” – hears, senses – fragments: a
colour, a sound, a bit of a landscape, a word in some foreign tongue, a half-
heard musical phrase. As one becomes skilled, more and more comes through.
Words are joined together, landscapes burgeon into elaborate scenes; musical
notes become melodies. If one persists, one’s “bowl” fills almost by itself with
spectacular detail: astronomical events, whole periods of history (human and
other), stately symphonies, dramas of great poignancy, and the details of a
myriad lives that one could never otherwise know. One can direct one’s atten-
tion as well, seeking certain areas, topics, or personalities. [. . .] At last one
reaches a stage where one can walk down any street or turn in at any door on
the world one is scrying, and all is instantly available, known, and consistent.
[. . .] One can do much more as well, but it is not wise to adumbrate too much;
dangers lurk here for the unwary.112
[. . .] Scrying is a solitary skill. Few who dwell in the world of physical sense-
perceptions can understand. Fewer still believe that what the scrier perceives is
in any way “real.” [. . .] Because of this, many would deny that they are scrying
at all and claim that their literary fantasies are just “fiction.”113
These passages strike me as experiential, not theoretical. They sound similar to how sha-
manic practitioners describe learning shamanic vision, whereby details of “other realm”
gradually take shape.114 Perhaps, Barker had met shamanic practitioners. Or, perhaps,
this is how some of his occult friends “scried”. But is Barker confessing that this is, also,
109
I would like to thank a Tekumel player for calling my attention to this passage.
110
M. A. R. Barker, The Tongue of those who Journey Beyond: Sunuz (n.l.: n.p. 2004). <http://www.
drivethrurpg.com/product/1763/The-Tongue-of-Those-Who-Journey-Beyond-Sunuz?it51 >, 2.
111
M. A. R. Barker, The Tongue of those who Journey Beyond: Sunuz (n.l.: n.p. 2004), 2.
112
113
114
For an excellent academically oriented overview of the phenomenon of shamanism and the psy-
chology behind it, see Roger Walsh, The World of Shamanism: New Views on an Ancient Tradition
(Woodbury, Minnesota: Llewellyn: 2007).
V 413
27
what he is doing, or is he just, once again, out-doing the occultists at their own game? Is
he himself even sure? He leaves the reader hanging.
If it [this book] is false – only a “dream” or an illusion – or if the scried vision
be accurate but the book’s author a charlatan or a deluded fool – then this
treatise can be taken as fiction: a “good read” for the occult-minded.115
Ultimately, I believe that Barker engaged in a visionary process that he discovered

spontaneously at a young age, and may have later understood in the light of shamanism,
occultism, or Islamic mysticism – and used it to “scry” his world. In that, he is not alone.
While the “halls of academic respectability” do not readily admit to the immaterial, in his
study on contemporary science-fiction, Kripal speaks of authors who privately blur the
boundaries between the physical and the metaphysical when it came to their imaginal
realms – even though they present their work as mere entertainment.116
The act of creation is still a mystery, and many artists will describe themselves as
“discovering the sculpture hidden in the stone” rather than “hacking the stone into sub-
mission”. In earlier eras, it was presumed that writers and artists were inspired by dae-
mons or muses, or were peering into an otherworldly realm. Given Barker’s academic
and religious interests, it does not seem out of place to quote a seventeenth-century mys-
tical Islamic philosopher here:
God’s power [is involved] in creating the imagined things that the soul finds in
itself. Rather, it is the soul that creates them by God’s leave. In the blink of an
eye, the soul can create the forms of immense objects, huge celestial bodies –
whether stable or moving – and numerous cities with all their inhabitants,
details, and attributes.117
In short, the study of Tekumel belongs in the domain of fiction. However, the study of
Barker’s creation of Tekumel belongs in the domain of religion. And, what bridges the
two is the “occult”. Explanations? On this one I pass. Go ask your friendly neighbour-
hood theologian.
His legacy
Barker’s creation seeped out of Empire of the Petal Throne into the collective
unconscious of fantasy just as it was starting to become a genre and had a pro-
found influence.
– Jo Walton, fantasy author118
115
M. A. R. Barker, The Tongue of those who Journey Beyond, 3.
116
Jeffery J. Kripal, Mutants & Mystics, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), 9–24.
117
Mullā Sadrā,
: al-Asfār (n.p., n.d.), vol. 9, 382.
118
Jo Walton, “M. A. R. Barker 1929–2012”, in Tor (March 17, 2012) < http://www.tor.com/2012/03/17/
mar-barker-1929–2012/>. Accessed December 28, 2016.
28
V
Tekumel may have begun as Barker’s private world, but a generation of authors and
game designers brought Tekumel’s influence into their own work. Nevertheless,
“T
ekumel” never became a household world like “Middle Earth”, and one reason may
have been its strangeness: even Barker admitted that most Westerners would rather
spend their off hours in mediaeval Europe rather than in an alien land.119
A useful comparison is that of Tekumel with a similar work, Raymond Feist’s Riftwar
saga. All the Riftwar novels contain strong elements of Tekumel, to the degree that they
have been recommended to help new players acclimatize themselves to Tekumel.120
Barker was bitter about the “similarities”, as his personal correspondence shows:
Yes, Raymond L. Feist pirated my stuff to some extent, changed the names,
and now reaps all sorts of awards for his “original” work. When he came to
Minneapolis some irate fans asked him point-blank about it, and he replied
that he had hired another person to work up some background material for
him (Feist) to use in his novels, and unbeknownst to Feist, the person inserted
some of my background because he had played EPT and enjoyed it. Feist has
thus covered himself. [. . .] As one SF fan asked at a bookstore here, “When’s
Barker’s next novel coming out? Feist is running short on material.” I won’t
have that state of affairs.121
The purpose here is not to dwell on questions of copyright, but rather to look at why the
Riftwar series succeeded in ways that Tekumel did not. Apart from the fact that Barker
and Feist had different writing styles, the Riftwar series opens in a familiar, mediaeval
European setting, with kings, wizards, and women in their proper place. Then, a rift opens
to Feist’s rendition of Tekumel, whereupon the Tekumelanis invade and engage in mass
slaughter. That is, while in Barker’s world, the “foreigners” are the protagonists, in Feists’s,
the foreigners are the villains. The Tekumelanis then capture the main character, brain-
wash him, and force him to serve one of their temples. He then rebels, violates their social
order, liberates their slaves, and defeats them.122 While I doubt Feist intended to write an
orientalist fantasy, in this light, it certainly sounds like one. Perhaps, the implied narrative
of Western cultural, moral, and military supremacy was simply more comforting.
Tekumel is particularly unique because it spans fiction and games, and it is only nat-
ural that- like Dungeons & Dragons – it would influence its successors. The role-playing
game Jorune has been described as “Tekumel done right”.123 The popular computer
119
Barker, Tekumel Source Book, 2.
120
Darryl Adams, The Blue Room, vol. 2, message 60.
121
M. A. R. Barker, unpublished personal correspondence, July 22, 1988.
122
Raymond E. Feist, Raymond E. Feist Riftwar Trilogy: Books 1, 2 and 3: Magician, Silverthorn and A
Darkness at Sethanon (Londn: Harper Voyager, 2012 [1983]).
123
Personal e-mail from someone whose profession involves role-playing games, March 12, 2016. See
also Dave Morris, “Reviews and Plugs”, in The Eye of All-Seeing Wonder, vol. 6 (Winter 1996) <http://
www.tekumel.com/eoasw6_09.html. Accessed December 28, 2016. A long-standing Tekumel player
said that the creators of the role-playing games Harn and Jornune had both said they were inspired by
Tekumel. Personal e-mail, March 12, 2016.
V 29
415
game series The Elder Scrolls also builds on Barker’s conceptions of religion with its
exploration of a realistic polytheism based on “lords of stability” and “lords of change”,
as well as moral ambiguities, dark themes, and numerical simulation of social interac-
tions. The third instalment of this game, Morrowind, has been seen as a tribute to
Tekumel, with its clan-homes – including a foreigner’s quarter – and similar game art.
Ironically, it was my own curiosity about the origins of the game lore of The Elder Scrolls
that opened my eyes to Barker’s legacy. While The Elder Scrolls is definitely a separate
creative endeavor, to me, it is also “Tekumel done right”. Tekumel may no longer have
the fan base that it once did, but just as it carried on the spirit of early twentieth-century
fantasy and science-fiction literature as well as many ancient and mediaeval texts, its spi-
rit has survived in a generation of new works.124
An early copy of the Empire of the Petal Throne125
Crossing civilizational bridges
One of the moments that will always live in me was the time when Phil took
us up to the attic office to discuss something. Along the way, he told me to
hold out my hand, palms up. He then placed a small book, about five inches
by seven on my hands. Very gently, he opened the gold covers and began to
read the book to me in Arabic. It was a medieval copy of the Qur’an, written
in black ink on pages of white ivory.
I felt like I’d stepped back in time a thousand years.
– Jeff Berry, friend of M. A. R. Barker and Tekumel player126
124
For a brief discussion of influences on Barker, see “Interview: M. A. R. Barker”, 20–25: 24; Daniel
Mackay, The Fantasy Role-Playing Game: A New Performing Art (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland,
2001), 27, 169, 174.
125
126
Personal e-mail, March 15, 2016.
30
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Barker was a man who inhabited different worlds: whether the Western world and
the Muslim world, or the “real world” and Tekumel. He had a broad range of beliefs,
experiences, and learning which few people could fully grasp. Hence, he directed his
life, interests, and studies inwards, into Tekumel. Then, he opened the door to Tekumel
and invited others in. In doing so, he introduced authentic conceptions of non-Western
religions, social structures, languages, and worldviews into the fantasy, science-fiction,
and gaming genre.
However, Barker’s most lasting contribution may not be in Tekumel itself, but rather
in how T ekumel brought people together. Although Tekumel was not a representation
of Islam, it inadvertently introduced players to Muslim civilization, and Tekumel players
spoke to me about how their acquaintance with Barker through Tekumel led to an
understanding and appreciation of the Islamic tradition. As one player put it, “we had a
graduate-level introduction to Islam and to South Asia through him, and it made a differ-
ence in our lives.”127 The camaraderie surrounding Tekumel led to natural gestures of
mutual acceptance. For instance, at Barker’s memorial service, one of his gaming friends
read aloud a passage from Elliot Weinberger’s Mohammed.128 Such gestures stand in
sharp contrast to the Islamophobia sweeping America today. Conversely, researching
Tekumel brought me into contact with people whom I would not have otherwise
encountered, and I received many generous invitations to come and discuss Tekumel
more.
Through his virtual world, Barker bridged the Muslim, Native American, and Western
traditions in an enjoyable and accessible way. He convinced people of different reli-
gions, genders, walks of life, and even sexual orientations to sit together peaceably and
explore serious questions of theology, ethics, and culture – all while having fun. No one
else I know has accomplished that. He brought people together not only through what
is, but also what if. Perhaps this is his legacy that truly should be explored.
Acknowledgments
This article would not have been possible without the outpouring of support I received
from Barker’s friends and fans, and the Tekumel community, as well as his academic col-
leagues. It is not possible to thank everyone, but I would like in particular to acknowledge
Jeff Berry (T ekumel’s informal archivist), Carl Brodt (of Tita’s Games in Berkeley), John
Whitburn (science-fiction novelist), and Dave Morris ( game designer) for taking the time to
share their memories of Tekumel and Barker, and for providing access to out-of-print or oth-
erwise inaccessible material. The tireless efforts of the Tekumel foundation in preserving
Barker’s work must also be acknowledged.
I would also like to thank Joseph Laycock (author of Dangerous Games), Matthew Melvin-
Koushki, and N. Shadrach for offering their views on Barker’s treatment of religion and the
127
Personal e-mail from Tekumel player, March 17, 2016.
128
Personal e-mail, March 17, 2016.
V 31
417
occult; and my colleagues Alexander Khaleeli (lecturer in Islamic philosophy and science-
fiction aficionado) and Mohammad Mesbahi for their insights and encouragement. Because
Barker’s life and work spanned so many different arenas, it is natural that different people
would have different views on him. It should be emphasized that my views here are wholly
my own, and may not represent the views of all or any of the above.
Best of wishes to Jeff Berry (Chirine ba Kal ) and Janet Moe in publishing their novelization
of their adventures in Tekumel!
32
V

Muhammad Abd Al-Rahman (Phillip) Barker: Bridging Cultural Divides Through Fantasy/ Science-Fiction Role-Playing Games and Fictional Religion

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Muhammad Abd al-Rahman (Phillip) Barker:

Bridging Cultural Divides through Fantasy/

Crossing cultures: M. A. R. Barker inscribes his copy of Dungeons & Dragons

Russians or an escaped Nazi war criminal, although I speak neither Russian

Barker led a compartmentalized life. As a result, most of his university colleagues

Barker’s wedding photo30

Barker was an aficionado of antique weaponry and armour31

Socially and culturally, Tekumel is as complex – and as alien to modern think-

This resulted in protracted speculation over T ekumel’s secrets.35

A collection of materials by and about Barker, including game books for

Barker and Tolkien

Because Barker is so often compared to Tolkien, it is illustrative to discuss Tekumel in

Mughal Monopoly, another game hand-drawn by Barker49

Almost certainly, Tekumel reflects Barker’s own adventures and misadventures in

ekumel’s fictional languages64

Dragons is rooted in a mediaeval Christian worldview, not occultism. However, Tekumel

This reflects a sidebar in simplified edition of Tekumel’s rules:

When is a game not just a game?

Barker himself describes himself as discovering Tekumel, not crafting it:

He continues with a description of learning to “scry”:

Ultimately, I believe that Barker engaged in a visionary process that he discovered

An early copy of the Empire of the Petal Throne125

Crossing civilizational bridges

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